April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Gil Giro doesn’t need a license
plate to tell where a car is from -- he just looks underneath
the chassis.

“Every time we see a car that comes in from the district,
you can see that its suspension is torn up,” said Giro, the
owner of Gili’s Automotive in Rockville, Maryland, outside
Washington. “It’s almost like the vehicle has been driven off-road.”

The nation’s capital isn’t alone in offering motorists
teeth-rattling rides as U.S. lawmakers tussle over how to pay
the bill for mending battered roads. Mechanics such as Giro say
they see the hidden tax car owners pay every day in torn tires,
misaligned front ends and bent axles.

Drivers won’t get relief anytime soon.

The U.S. Highway Trust Fund, which helps pay for road and
transit projects in Washington and all 50 states, has been
bailed out by Congress three times since 2008 for a total of
$34.5 billion. The gasoline tax that supports the fund hasn’t
been raised in 19 years, and with the cost of materials such as
steel and asphalt on the rise, the fund is expected to have a
deficit of about $10 billion this year.

Car owners already are shelling out far more than that to
repair damage done to their vehicles by America’s ruined streets
and highways, industry and academic researchers say.

$324 Per Driver

That works out to $324 per licensed driver, says Frank
Moretti, TRIP’s director of policy and research. The figure is
an average of all vehicles and can vary widely between cars and
large commercial trucks, which are prone to costlier damage, he
says.

Karim Chatti, a professor of civil and environmental
engineering at Michigan State University in East Lansing,
estimates that damage linked to poor roads probably runs between
$15 to $25 billion annually for car owners, not including tire
damage and fuel-efficiency costs.

Chatti’s lower estimate of $15 billion would cover this
year’s projected deficit in the highway trust fund; an
additional $10 billion would help prevent the nation’s highways
and arterial roads from slipping further into disrepair.

‘True Cost’

“It is a true cost to the nation, there’s no doubt,” says
Chatti, who has conducted research for the National Academies on
how pavement conditions affect vehicle operating costs. “You
start adding them up and you get into the billions.”

Justin Nisly, a spokesman for the Department of
Transportation, said in an e-mailed statement that
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has often stated that
“America’s transportation infrastructure is in desperate need
of repair, which is why it is so important that Congress pass a
transportation bill.”

Washington’s lawmakers aren’t close to a consensus on a
long-term solution for the nation’s road network -- or even how
to pay to keep highways from deteriorating even further.

The last comprehensive highway policy and funding bill
passed in 2005 and ran through 2009. Highway funding has
continued since then through nine extensions, the most recent of
which is set to expire June 30.

The House has passed a 10th extension that would continue
funding through Sept. 30. The Senate approved a two-year bill
which the House hasn’t considered.

Long-Term Bill

“The key is passing a long-term funding bill,” says
Michael Green, a spokesman for the American Automobile
Association, a non-profit motor club and leisure travel
organization with 53 million members in North America. “Without
that, states and counties can’t implement projects.”

President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal calls for
highway funding to be paid for through savings assumed from the
scaling back of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is no proposal before Congress to increase the 18.4-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax, last raised in 1993, during the
administration of Bill Clinton. Both Obama and Congressional
Republicans have said they oppose any increase in the tariff.

Senator Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, last month
withdrew a proposal to index the tax to inflation when it didn’t
attract support. If his proposal had been adopted last year, the
tax would have increased to 18.9 cents, according to Daniel Head,
a spokesman for Enzi.

“Senator Enzi’s proposal would not cover all of the
revenue needed to fund the Highway Trust Fund, but is about
starting a conversation on a long-term fix,” Head said in an e-mailed statement.

Clinton-Era Value

Still, to match Clinton-era purchasing power, the gasoline
tax would need to rise to 29 cents, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics inflation calculator.

The funding crunch has been magnified in recent years by a
decline in gasoline tax proceeds as consumers drive cars with
better mileage and curtail gasoline purchases. Fuel taxes raised
a total of $33.7 billion for road projects in 2006, compared
with $30.1 billion in 2009.

One automaker has built a sales pitch around the dire state
of America’s roads.

An ad campaign for Volkswagen AG’s Audi A6 2012 sedan,
touting the luxury car’s navigation system, features apocalyptic
scenes of pockmarked and litter-strewn roads, noting in one ad
that “over 100,000 miles of highways and bridges are in
disrepair.” In another, the ad’s voiceover says that “highway
maintenance is underfunded, costing drivers $67 billion a year
and countless tires.”

Funding Crisis

The funding crisis is even more pronounced because the cost
of key materials has increased faster than inflation, according
to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials.

Steel prices increased 105 percent in the five years to
2009, while asphalt was up 70 percent in the same span. Diesel
fuel costs, used to power heavy equipment, soared 305 percent,
according to AASHTO.

Washington’s endless legislative wrangling is good news for
Maryland mechanic Giro and bad news for his customers. He says
the replacement of front and rear struts for Toyota Motor
Corp.’s Corolla can run as much as $800.

Moretti of TRIP says the situation won’t improve until car
owners realize they are already paying a stealth tax through
vehicle repairs and pressure their lawmakers for a long-term
overhaul of U.S. roads.

Drivers “are going to pay for keeping the roads in good
shape, or they’re going to pay a lot more money for keeping the
system in poor condition,” Moretti says.